TAY Calendar - 2009 Photo Contest

For a professional quality calendar, you really need photos about 2550x3300, or about 8MP.  Most people say they can't really tell the difference at 1700x2200, or 3.5MP, but it's not "professional" quality at that point.  Sometimes you'll hear people say you can go down to 1275x1650, or around 2MP, but the end result looks a little fuzzy to me.

To keep from excluding people who don't have professional cameras, I would probably put the limit around 3.5MP, but I'm open to comments.

Don't want to see  any pics of all you crusty old farts skiing in long johns and shorts!( I incude myself as a crusty old fart!)

How 'bout Jeff S in spandex then?
A fantastic day, no doubt!

Its not a bad idea to help out the FOAC. I'm sure that you'd get a lot of pictures - What about featuring 2 (or more?) pictures per month.

I also think this is a good idea, but there are some stumbling blocks. If the calendar is going to be print on demand from a place like CafePress, then it is likely to end up being a pretty expensive calendar: I see calendars there with 11x8.5 photos at $20, and there's a $5 shipping charge. CafePress would likely be the largest beneficiary of the fundraising effort. At Zazzle (TAY shirts), the maximum commissions/royalties that can be earned is 17% (does not include shipping), and it takes several months before those are paid.

If a batch of calendars were produced by a traditional printer, the cost should be much lower, so the profit margin could be a lot higher, but then the calendars would have to be distributed. A payment collection system would have to be set up (PayPal - not too difficult but it requires time to set up and learn), and good records would have to be kept. Sales tax would have to be collected and remitted, and I believe that a business license would be required. Starts to get pretty complicated.

Maybe the calendars themselves could be donated to FOAC so that everything operated under their umbrella? Donations could be collected to fund the calendar printing. There would still be the issue of collecting payment and shipping - not sure that FOAC would want to have that responsibility.

Sorry to seem negative - I think this is a great idea but there are some hurdles. I really like the idea of some kind of photo contest to select the shots, as that lets lots of people participate and helps get the word out about the calendar, which is good promo.

I'm still uncertain if sales tax is required for non-profit use... We have fundraisers at work and don't charge sales tax... Not that I'm positive that's legal, either.

I hadn't even thought of just using PayPal to handle money. I have a PayPal account with a near-zero balance, that could simplify things. Anyone know a good cheap printer?

I like the idea of seeing if FOAC could help with sales and distribution. Anyone have any contacts there?

My thinking was that if the calendars themselves were donated to FOAC, then their sales would definitely be non-profit related. TAYers could help with the actual sales and distribution, all under the FOAC umbrella.

I believe that if you want to be able to accept credit card payments at PayPal, you've got to have a business account. The nice thing about credit card payments is that a purchaser does not need to have a PayPal account. If no credit cards, then a PayPal account is required, which could keep some from making the purchase. Separately, personal checks could be accepted.